Day Three Round-Up!

January 4, 2009 on 5:17 am | In News, PS3, XBOX 360 | No Comments

The big drama today at MAGFest involved the Nibbler championship incident, but other than the panels and concerts (Armcannon, Metroid Metal and Smash Bros), it was pretty much business as usual. Awesome, awesome business as usual.

People were especially excited about the bands for tonight, where some of the big headliners got their chance to play. Armcannon has been getting a lot of great publicity lately, and it’s for good reason: they rock. Keep an eye on them. Metroid Metal is the breakout band from last year’s MAGFest that has likewise been picking up some serious momentum, and Smash Brothers has been described by some as “the MAGFest all-star band.” The Saturday concert was by far the most talked-about performance, and people had good reason to be excited.

Speaking of a good reason to be excited, I got to spend a little more quality time with Street Fighter IV. I’m quite happy to report it’s going to be phenomenal. According to the game’s current Wikipedia page, “Producer Yoshinori Ono has stated that he wanted to keep the game closer to Street Fighter II” as opposed to the more technical Street Fighter III. Now, I’m not knocking Street fighter III: it’s deep, involved, and a whole lot of fun. Still, there’s something to be said for keeping it simple and staying true to the classics. The fighting in SFIV feels like a super-polished 2.5D version of Super Street Fighter Turbo, and what it lacks in complexity (and player roster), it makes up for in style. The crowd cheered as Zangeif pulled off yet another suplex on poor Ryu, and the camera zoomed in upon impact in order to show both fighters fantastic facial expressions.

Oh, and don’t even get me started on the Ultra finishers: the quality of the cinematic is jaw-dropping. I was a little worried when I watched promotional videos of SFIV because I thought the Ultra Combos would be too overused and too overpowered, but there’s no need to worry. The move can only be triggered when the player has already taken a pretty heavy beating, and even then, it’s pretty tough to pull off the move and even tougher to land. Successfully finishing off an opponent with an Ultra Combo makes you feel better than winning the lottery, and pulling it off in a public setting like MAGFest is epic enough to make you feel like King of the World. Onlookers cheered like crazy after every match, rooting for the come-from behind victory and celebrating every perfect finish. There are advanced techniques for the hardcore player and plenty of new faces that bring some great personality to the roster.
Street Fighter IV is going to blow people’s mind when it comes out, and even now it appears to have been embraced by the hardcore fighting community due to the depth and balance of its fighting system.

On the film front, I also got a chance to speak with Chad Williams, one of the big names behind PBC productions (The New Adventures of Captain S, Little Miss Gamer). PBC has been hard at work on the webcomic of Captain S, and Chad told me there were plans for a huge end-of-the-year animatic for the series. It’s currently in limbo, but it may happen in the future, so be sure to check out their website for details.
Chad also let me know of some other upcoming PBC projects, such as a documentary on the recovery projects in New Orleans and the contributions of New York corrections officers in the rebuilding effort. PBC has also done a feature-length documentary called Puppet Rampage, based on the 2007 National Puppetry conference. Bet you didn’t know PBC did stuff outside of gaming!

“PBC is an ambiguous title,” said Chad, grinning. “We get to do a whole lot of different, unique stuff.” The PBC crew shot a music video based on ExciteBike earlier today, and they were getting clips with real MAGFest guests to use in their video. Unsuspected gamers playing on the main floor suddenly found themselves filmed for what might end up being the next big viral hit: it just goes to show the kind of stuff that can happen at any moment at MAGFest.
“It’s a gamer’s holiday,” said Chad.

Saturday marks the last full day of the con; check back tomorrow for some closing thoughts!
~Joe Newman